


Closeted

by MysteryMuse



Series: MMX-XXX [8]
Category: Rockman X | Mega Man X
Genre: Awkward Sexual Situations, Axl is a considerate dom, Backgrounded OTP, Be Careful What You Wish For, Blow Jobs, Bondage, Closet Sex, Consensual Kink, Copy Shot, Curiosity, Dirty Talk, Dom/sub Play, Duct Tape, Enabling Behavior, Fingerfucking, Gags, Guilt, Handcuffs, Hints of Self-cest, Human on Reploid, M/M, Masturbation, Oral Sex, Porn Interrupted By Porn, Pre-OT3, Reploid Sexuality 101, Self-Destructive Tendencies, Soft bodies, Suffering Circuit strikes again, X is a guilty dom, Zero Also Thinks Zero-Era Is Wank Fantasy, Zero is a mouthy sub, mild dub-con, post-coital guilt, ridiculously human robots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-27
Updated: 2014-12-15
Packaged: 2017-12-27 18:20:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/982112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteryMuse/pseuds/MysteryMuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zero tries to scratch an itch. He thinks he's being discreet. Unfortunately, someone catches him at it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Normally he wouldn't do this kind of thing.  
  
X had told Zero, implicitly and explicitly, never to do what Zero had every intention of doing tonight. He'd made it an order. He was deadly serious about it, and had a habit of checking Zero's system logs to ensure that Zero remained in compliance with that order...  
  
Zero didn't care. His body was burning, positively on fire; he -needed-, and there was no way to contain that need. X was gone, on the other side of the world, he'd be gone for three more days. His absence was unbearable.  
  
Furtively, Zero slid into a storage closet in one of the basement levels, shut off his transceiver, and locked the door behind him. He didn't need it that long after all, just long enough... He'd be in and out quickly.  
  
The storage room was cramped, barely large enough to fit him with the two clunky shelves included to either side. There was a heavy smell to the air; it wasn't often used, and the lingering odor of some old oil spill, halfheartedly cleaned long ago, saturated the room. Zero bit down a moan- for a Reploid, it was almost perfume.  
  
It made him think of X's smell, the odd mixture of luscious ozone and fresh oil that X gave off; pure and heated all at the same time.  
  
Zero lowered himself to the ground, pressing his back against the shelves, hooking his feet up, letting them rest at the opposite side. He quickly grabbed at the edge of his pelvic armor, and pulled it down and open. There was a faint hiss, heat from his greedy body releasing as a near-invisible thread of steam.  
  
Zero thrust his hand down sharply between his legs and began to rub. He was already overstimulated, so tense and frantic to get off, the conduits searing ruby-red with heat even before he started stroking himself; it nearly hurt. He gasped, chin pressing against the gold 'collar' of his breastplate, and pushed his hips up into his fingers, rocking savagely against himself. Then, using both hands, his fingers raked, dug, pressed in.  
  
He climaxed, as Reploids do, in a flurry of incoherent pixels, the world dissolving into noise and static as the flow of energy in his body pushed the wrong way, backing into him, flaring up his navel and up his spine and curled down around the folds of his ass. When his head cleared, he bit his lip to hold down his whimper of pleasure; he wasn't sure if he'd screamed, and he hoped he hadn't.  
  
He sat still for a moment, panting, his overwrought system trying to cool itself through his rapid breath. His thighs were trembling.  
  
It wasn't enough. As soon as he recovered, it came roaring back again- the pounding, almost insane need.  
  
 _Shit._  
  
He was strong willed- one of the strongest willed Reploids alive- but this seemed to be out of his control, something coming from his body, a demand that wouldn't go away.  
  
Grimacing, he began to glance around the shelves, half in hopes of distracting himself and sneaking back into control sideways.  
  
A roll of tape, silver and dusty on one edge, caught his eye. He reached out for it, something in his mind catching; something half-remembered from a film, from some long-ago event on the field. He picked at the edge until the tape lifted away from the roll, still sticky and taut, with a loud FFFRRT that made him involuntarily wince. He tore off a small piece with effort, playing with it, getting his fingers stuck and unstuck. Dark - and curious - thoughts bubbled through him.  
  
 _I can't believe I'm thinking this._  
  
But he tore off another, longer, strip, and then he pressed it over his lips, smoothing it down with the palm of his hand. It tingled a little, the chemical in the glue mildly reacting with his artificial skin. He breathed harder, core accelerating wildly at the idea, the -concept- of what he was doing. That he was doing it to himself seemed doubly dirty.  
  
He tore off another strip and added it to the first, and then another. And then, on a whim, now that he knew he liked it, he pushed his knees together again, and began to strap them, around and around, just above the joints, until a thick silver band held him firmly. He moaned with satisfaction, wriggling his hips; his legs were immobile, as if fused.  
  
His hand shook as it returned between his legs. Deep, long pulses of pleasure throbbed up and down Zero's chest- luscious, heavy; he moved his fingers more slowly, savoring it, the constriction seeming to intensify his lust even as it slowed the pace in his body down. So good, so tight, holding his lips and legs closed. He wouldn't be able to talk at all; wouldn't be able to say no; he'd be completely helpless...  
  
Zero wriggled and squirmed, and found himself wishing he could tie his hands, too. But he didn't see how he could. He wondered if X would do it to him.  
  
 _If I begged him, maybe... heh._  
  
He closed his eyes, second orgasm starting to crest.  
  
And a key rattled in the lock of the closet door.  


* * *

  
At the sound of the key in the door, Zero gasped and did the only two things he could to salvage his dignity- he ripped the duct tape away from his mouth, balling it up and shoving it under the shelf on the floor, and he slammed his pelvic armor closed. Now he regretted using so much of the sticky silver tape on his legs- there was no way to get free of it fast enough to claim he'd fallen, or was just napping, or any of the other semi-plausible stories the Excuse-o-tron (a fictitious Z-part so named by X for Zero's seeming ability to weasel out of almost any situation) could concoct. He was still madly, almost unreasonably aroused, and closing his armor only trapped the heat back inside between his armor and his sensitive inner mechanisms.  
  
 _There's no way I can explain this that doesn't sound insane or retarded..._  
  
The door opened, and a mechanic, in a dirty Hunter-logo'd pair of green coveralls (green for non-Reploid working) stepped inside. He was nondescript- could have been any one of a hundred human greasemonkeys that worked in these levels- young man, mid-30's, short close cropped dark hair. Zero didn't recognize the man, but he barely knew any of the human staff.  
  
 _I should have put my back on the door... Dammit! Why did I only think of that NOW?_  
  
Coveralls, as Zero promptly labeled the human in his HUD for lack of better identifier tag, blinked at the tape-tangled Reploid a few times, taking in the blond's contorted posture, glowing cheeks and coarse breathing. The edge of his mouth spasmed, twitching up, like he was fighting to keep from either yelling or laughing.  
  
Zero snapped his head up and shot the human the most intimidating glare he could muster, snapping, "Do you MIND?"-- or, at least, that was his plan. What actually came out of his mouth as he glanced up was, to his own horror, a petulant "The duct tape attacked me." His core went screaming toward his feet to hide, and he smacked his hand over his face. "..."  
  
Coveralls burst into laughter. "Nice save."  
  
The Reploid scowled helplessly, fidgeting. The eager heat was still under his skin, getting worse while he was forced to sit here _talking_... "You could at least shut the damn door. I don't stand there in the middle of the hall staring at you while you jack off, right?"  
  
More laughter. "Wow, I've never heard a Reploid say shit like THAT before." Coveralls did, however, manage to close the door-- without leaving the tiny closet. There were perhaps two feet between the human and the Reploid with the door closed. "You're Zero, right? One of the special Reploids. I've never seen you up close."  
  
Zero tensed at that. "I think you were supposed to be on the other side of the door. I'm not completely up on my human, but that's the proper etiquette, right? You go away, I finish, we pretend we never saw each other."  
  
The laughter was gone. Instead, Coveralls ignored Zero's snarking, looking intensely curious, and thoughtful. Zero noted the human's temperature starting to rise. "I thought Reploids didn't have the...y'know. Equipment."  
  
He was moving closer, staring wide-eyed and starting to turn pink; the human had green eyes, like X's. Zero shivered inside his armor; nervous energy rolled down his back. Was this going to turn into something weird... weirdER? He rolled his eyes and made himself very still. "I don't."  
  
"Then how..." Coveralls found the roll of tape on the floor, picked it up and idly turned it around in his hands, eyes flashing to the thick stripe binding Zero's thighs. Zero's anxiety built alongside a sudden surge of heat-flash mental images of what those hands could do with that tape. _Completely out of the question. What the hell's wrong with me?_  
  
"Look, buddy, this isn't Reploid Sex 101, I..."  
  
Coveralls cut him off, raising his head and pinning Zero with a look. "Show me."  
  
There it was. Zero recognized the tone shift immediately- subtle, but unmistakable. That wasn't a question, or a request, it was an order. He knew what orders sounded like, and his CPU leapt wildly to find a loophole that would let him disobey. Hunter Reploids and Hunter humans worked side by side every day, but when it really came down to it, all Reploids had to obey human commands.  
  
Zero still wanted so badly. Even after getting off twice, his body was still throbbing lowly, aching for a firm touch.  
  
The tape was in the human's hands, and he struggled not to stare. _But this could get me killed... X will definitely kill me!_ After a few agonizing seconds, the Reploid admitted defeat. He dipped his head and whispered. "Lock the door."  
  
The human reached silently behind himself onehanded and fumbled to do so, green eyes riveted on Zero. "Turn toward me." He took hold of one of Zero's heavy ankles to help, murmuring, "warm." to himself. With the human tugging on his legs and the strength of own arms, Zero was soon turned; his back against the wall now, bound legs pulled forward and flattened on the floor.  
  
Coveralls stepped forward and knelt over the Reploid's thighs, pushing close to Zero's chest. Fascination moved between them, their eyes locked, each breathing hard. Zero slowly raised a hand and, holding down a shiver, caught hold of the human's zipper near his neck, pulling it down. Underneath, the human wore a simple black t-shirt, and shorts. Never letting his eyes move, Zero slid his hand up and under the shirt, catching his breath as he made contact with the human's skin. It was almost shockingly soft, soft and delicate, moving against his fingertips when the man breathed, and Zero's sensitive fingers could easily detect the human's racing heart. As his hands wandered, he found the man's small, hardening nipples, and toyed with them with his thumbs, making a soft noise of interest at his discovery.  
  
The human bit down a mewl, skin prickling as Zero's deft hands so-carefully stroked his chest. "... never made it with a Reploid before... or a famous one." He hurriedly shrugged out of the arms of his jumpsuit and tugged off his shirt, gazing down at Zero excitedly and, with curiousity, placing his hands on Zero's gleaming chestplate, cupping the twin green jewels, running his palms over them. They, like the rest of Zero's armor, were curiously warm, but Zero gave no reaction to the touch. "What can I do that you'll feel?" wondered the human.  
  
Zero answered by removing his helmet and hair-clip, shaking his head briefly to let the heavy blond strands come loose and settle around his shoulders. Coveralls stared in awe, reaching out to catch some of that hair; Zero stroked a hand down his bare back, breathing hard. "It almost feels real," the man breathed, rubbing his fingers through the long gold tresses and, growing more daring, sifting his hands deeper in, toward Zero's scalp and forehead. He felt over Zero's face like a blind man might, tracing Zero's straight nose, pressing his fingertips along the cheeks and then, after a pause, moving his thumb over Zero's lips. They were warm, and resilient, like a human's. He pushed his thumb harder against them, and Zero obligingly parted his mouth, letting the thumb slip inside with a low rumble of pleasure before he flicked his tongue lightly along the digit. It seemed almost instinctive to do so, perfectly natural. He tasted the human's faint smell of sweat, industrial soap, and a distant note of oil that was pleasing. "mn."  
  
Far from soothing Zero's lust, the exotic flavor and the softness of the human's skin on his lips only accelerated it further. His hand pressed down harder on the human's back, pulling him closer to his chest. He licked harder on the thumb, bright blue eyes peering up into the human's with a note of challenge and expectation.  
  
"God damn," Coveralls whispered, Zero's raw lust washing over him. His head spun with crazy ideas now, and his erection rapidly rose. He quickly unzipped his shorts and pushed them down toward his knees, moaning softly as the air brushed over his cock. He pulled his hand away, wet, from Zero's lips and stroked himself quickly, a couple of times for the sheer pleasure of it. "Oh god."  
  
Zero licked his lips, watching the human grow red and move his hand over himself. He'd absorbed enough human porn (he liked to tease X with it) to get the message, and a flushed smirk moved across his face. "Like it, huh?" he purred.  
  
Coveralls was gasping humidly, one hand on himself and one on Zero's shoulder. "Can I...?"  
  
Zero knew instantly what he wanted, and his curiosity skyrocketed. His core rate jumped, and he wriggled against the tape on his legs. "If you..." He paused for a moment; he wasn't afraid to ask for what he wanted at any time, but it was crossing that last line that gave him reason to think carefully. He pushed the words out before he could regret it, voice coarse and hard. "Finish tying me up."  
  
The human bit down another moan and went fishing for the tape. He stroked himself once more, a quick pump, then rasped to Zero. "Give me your hands."  
  
The Reploid obeyed. Coveralls placed Zero's hands between his own and turned them until their fingers pressed tip to tip. Then he started applying the tape, starting with Zero's fingers, strapping them tightly together and working his way in a spiral lattice up Zero's gauntlets. After a moment he tore off the end, content that Zero's arms were immobilized, and reached for the back of Zero's neck, pulling him forward and whispering into his earcone. "Can your arms go all the way around on your shoulders?"  
  
Zero nodded. The human pulled Zero further forward then, and after a little careful manuevering raised Zero's arms over his head. The Reploid's shoulder-joints clicked as his arms passed over his head and then were pressed down toward the small of his back. after that, the human began to circle Zero's chest with more tape, binding his forearms to his side.  
  
Zero nearly came again just from that, head lowered, panting into the hair that fell around his neck and curtained his mouth. He was pushed back upright against the wall, and no amount of squirming could release his arms or legs.  
  
Coveralls grinned madly, pleased with himself, cock tightening more at the sight of the blond Reploid's captivity. He moved in closer, rising up to stand over Zero, pushing his pelvis toward Zero's head. "...you know what I want now, right?"  
  
Musky scent enfolded Zero; it didn't affect him fully, but it was such an unusual smell he breathed in deeply to process it. "Mmhm," he murmured.  
  
The human wound a hand into Zero's hair eagerly, pulling the Reploid's head into position. "Open your mouth, Zero." Zero moaned around the thick, hard cock that thrust between his lips and slid deep over his tongue- it was pure pleasure, a strange, hot, silky sensation of weight and wet. _Oh fuck, I'm not gonna be able to go without this now..._ He pushed back with his tongue as the human began to pump his hips.  
  
"ohh god," the human whispered, both hands in Zero's hair now, almost pulling. "Fuck yeah... suck me... mmmm!"  
  
The closet soon filled with soft, damp sounds. Zero's head was pinned between the wall and the human's hips. "mnhf. mng. gnh." The human's pace was rapidly accelerating, and Zero felt something salty trickle into his mouth. Puzzled, he made a low noise, but the human was lost in his pleasure, unable to hear or indifferent to Zero's mewling. A few moments later, the human bent his head back and cried out, and Zero's mouth was flooded with a thick, cloying flavor. The wet, wet thrusting carried on a few moments longer, and Zero felt the thick liquid trickling out of the edge of his mouth, down his chin. "nh." Just then, the human pulled back, easing his softening cock free and dribbling more thick white drops on Zero's chestplate and chin in the process.  
  
Zero felt indescribably dirty- and indescribably pleased, despite the mouthful of whatever that was that had been pumped into him that he rapidly strugged to swallow down (his system said it was harmless). The human looked sated and dizzy, grinning down with green eyes wet from pleasure.  
  
"You're hot," Coveralls whispered. "You're so fucking hot. Who taught you how to give head?"  
  
Zero shook his head. "Never done it before."  
  
"Did you like it?" After he asked, the human started glancing around the shelves. He found a scrap of rag and used it to wipe himself off, pulled his shorts back on, then brushed away the excess on Zero's chin.  
  
The Reploid smirked. "It wasn't bad."  
  
"Oh, good." The human's tone was light. "Cause I think we'll have to do it again..."  
  
Before Zero could protest, the damp rag was pushed into his mouth, and before he could spit it up, the human was winding more tape over his mouth! He stared up in surprise, and began to twist and yell ineffectively. "MMH! NH!"  
  
Coveralls grinned, leaning back to observe the blond's thrashing. "Too fucking hot." He caught Zero's lower legs up as the Reploid attempted to kick him, and soon had Zero's lower legs trapped as completely as all the rest of him. Zero growled and roared feebly, thrashing his head from side to side in protest.  
  
The human finished dressing and zipped up his coveralls, dangling a key in front of Zero's eyes. "See, here's the deal. I'm the only one who has a key to this closet. And you won't teleport away like that, because then you'll have to explain how you got that way, right?"  
  
Zero made a loud, rude noise, but his eyes flashed warily.  
  
The human grinned back. "See you in a bit, Zero." He waved happily and unlocked and opened the door, peering out carefully before turning off the light, letting himself out and shutting the door again, the key rattling in the lock.  
  
Zero shrieked behind his gag. "MMMM!" He twisted and writhed uselessly in the dark, hair sliding against the floor.  
  
The worst part was that he was still desperately, frantically horny.


	2. ReCloseted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Axl shows up, but he doesn't entirely 'rescue' Zero from the closet...

[ _This isn't funny, Axl_.] Zero broadcast petulantly.  
  
Axl, being a newgen with superior processing speed, had taken exactly 1/36th of a second after arriving in the closet to start giggling, and then he just couldn't stop. He was trying very, very hard, but he just couldn't manage. "pfffftnhg 'm sss-sorry."  
  
Zero, lying on the oil-stained floor on his back, in the excruciatingly undignified position of being tightly gagged and bound with several layers of duct tape, just glared screaming death up at the junior Hunter and tried to smack Axl's leg with his toes. [ _Get. me. out. of. here._ ] And then he turned very red. [ _I'm sharing a vulnerable moment here and you're laughing at me._ ]  
  
Axl waved his hands frantically in front of his own face and, still giggling, struggled to wave off the laughing fit, as if it were a cloud he could banish away. "No, no, I'm sorry! I am! It's just... fhfhf...how the heck, Zero?" He crouched down - there was just barely enough room in the closet between the shelves for the two of them - and started to pull Zero off the floor by his shoulders. "I mean, X isn't here, so it had to be somebody else." He blinked as he got closer to Zero and got hit by a massive wave of human pheromones and Zero's energy, which was extremely agitated and accelerated. "Wow." Axl's eyes widened as his system pronounced the inevitable conclusion. "Oh, wow. Okay, okay." He turned serious then and put his arms around Zero. "Hang on, we're goin'."  
  
A blip, and the two Hunters vanished from the closet...  
  
... reappearing in what looked to Zero like someone's forgotten apartment. It was done out in dark shades of wine and burgundy. The walls were well-polished stained woods, with heavy draperies and a few art deco lamps embedded in the walls casting large triangles of amber light. There was a kind of kitchen nook, with a wooden table and several Reploid-capable chairs, a deck of cards scattered over the table, and a faint, lingering scent of some kind of smoke that was in all of the furniture fabrics and carpeting. Axl manuevered Zero to sit in the middle of the couch and wandered off to the kitchenette to look for something to free his friend from his predicament.  
  
Zero looked around, puzzled. [ _Where are we, Axl?_ ]  
  
The newgen called back from rummaging around in a drawer in the kitchenette. "Heh. Sorry, I kinda got flustered and grabbed the first teleport ID I had in my queue. Totally forgot I didn't update my settings. This's one of Red Alert's old hideyholes. We used to stage from here for city missions an' sometimes we brought guys here if we needed to have meetings and stuff." Axl went back to rummaging, objects rattling around in the drawer; he picked up a knife, rejected it as too dull. "I'm sure we had some scissors or somethin' in here...ha!" He started back around the table, heading back to Zero and plopping casually into the couch next to him, and then startled as something struck his memory. "Aw, crap, I forgot... be right back!"  
  
He blipped out, leaving the scissors to clatter from mid-air to the couch. Zero grunted, and wriggled vainly, twisting his body and flapping his fingers ineffectually in the direction of the scissors- a difficult task considering his arms were completely immobilized behind him - when Axl reappeared with Zero's helmet. He set the helmet down on the table. "Didn't wanna leave that laying around. Kinda be weird if somebody found it without you attached, huh?"  
  
Zero wriggled in what he hoped was a rather pointed way, gesturing with his fingers in the vague direction of the scissors. He was still bewilderingly unable to get on top of his body, feeling his lust starting to surge again, and his thoughts were twisting back into degenerate spirals of raunchy imagery. He was already starting to think about fingers on his linework and guns in his mouth and... **dammit**. [ _Either cut me loose or start feeling me up, but pick one, Axl! I'm going crazy here._ ]  
  
Axl giggled. "You got it bad, huh?" Then he tapped the scissors absently against his palm. "I dunno if X would like it if I took advantage of you in this condition," he teased Zero, green eyes flashing with coy mischief. "You kinda can't say no, while you're all stuck together like that."  
  
Zero groaned in his throat, helpless and wanton, red-faced above the tapegag. He let his head flop backward,against the back of the couch. His toes, the only part of his body he could move well, wriggled back and forth. [ _I don't care, come ON already. Do something._ ]  
  
The newgen wriggled his own toes inside his armor- the noises Zero made just went straight down his spine, a burst of hot white static. He had to try very, very hard not to immediately pounce his fellow S-class. "Maybe I want to hear you say it out loud so I know it's okay, first." Still grinning like a maniac, Axl leaned over, carefully pulled Zero's head forward and steadied him, then cut away the tape over his mouth and helped Zero pull out the dirty rag that had been stuffed in it.  
   
Zero worked his jaw a little, just to feel that everything was aligned correctly, then huffed up at Axl, coarse and rumbling, "You want me to beg, is that it?" His eyes were sharp as lasers, bright with want, and his core was thrumming long, deep, steady.  
  
Axl nodded! Cheerfully, keeping Zero's head in his hands. "Well, I wouldn't say beg, but definitely I wanna hear you say you want it before I do anything." He fought not to caress Zero's cheeks, but his thumb muscles twitched a little with the thought before he locked down tight.    
  
The blond continued to laser stare at Axl through heavy lashes and overhanging silk hair. He sucked in breath. "I want you to fuck me," he said, carefully pronouncing each taut word with effort, with yearning, weight in every syllable. He watched Axl's eyes widen, as if the words were striking blows, watched him shudder and try to hold back against Zero's voice. "I want you to nail me to the wall, put your fucking guns down my throat and pull the trigger, and stroke me off while you do it. I want you to tie me up even tighter, collar me, gag me, blindfold me, then sit on my face and make me get you off with just my nose. I want you to rub yourself off with my hair, get me filthy with oil and come, and leave me chained up in a puddle of my own vital fluids. I want you to beat me until neither of us can move or breathe. I don't care if it hurts, I don't care if it takes all night, I don't care if anyone approves or not. I. want. you. to. fuck. me, Axl."     
  
Axl very nearly fainted, but not quite. He gasped over Zero's forehead, through a sudden drop in coolant pressure, slapped his palm over Zero's mouth, and groaned, "O-oh man, I am totally going to destroy you, Zero." But the words came out reverent, bright. He moved his left hand, one of the Bullets forming in a flare of yellow light, the tip leaving an arc of white afterglow in the air as he brought it up between them and pinned Zero with a longing, greedy stare. "Open wide." He moved his hand, fingers sliding under Zero's hair to the back of his neck, and pulled the blond's head forward toward the pistol, made a mental adjustment to the weapon's settings.  
  
Zero's pulse rumbled thunder under his skin, and he closed his eyes, opened his lips, accepting. The Bullet slid hard into his mouth, cold and heavy, ridged and square, stretching the corners of his lips, pressing his tongue flat.  
  
Axl whimpered, desperately, his whole body tugging tight, his programming urging him to fire and claim his target. "You asked for this."  
  
He pushed the gun down deeper still, as deep as it could go, down to the back of Zero's throat, and pulled the trigger.  
  
Zero's bound body arched sharply, thrusting up against Axl, and his eyes washed from blue to gold as the Copy Shot rampaged through his system. He crashed back into the couch, eyes empty, as a delicate lattice of yellow and orange light rose out of the center of his chest and wove together into a shining ball. Axl exhaled, but he was still getting vitals out of Zero- the blond reploid was just stunned, which was what he'd expected. The Copy Shot was lethal to smaller creatures and weak enemies, but Axl knew Zero's strength and trusted it. He reached out and brushed his fingers over the light, absorbing it. Zero's data flashed up his arm like a wave of cool water, and slotted neatly into an available space.  
  
Here goes! thought Axl, retracting the Bullet, heavy with the headrush of electroendorphins that always took him over after a successful "kill"-shot. He queued up Zero's data in the Copy Chip, and it rebuilt his body into its new pattern in a quick flash of shimmery particles.    
  
The A-trans worked perfectly, with just two odd side effects; when Axl looked down at the form he'd borrowed from Zero, the armor seemed to be black instead of red, and the long, silken hair had turned from golden blond to a kind of bleached cream white. "Huh," Axl said, making a quick mental note of the color effect - maybe Zero's core DNA had a different initial palette? - and felt Zero's grin forming out of the facial muscles he'd stolen.  
  
Zero came around just in time. His head lifted from the couch, came into focus on just what was looming over him, with its hands on his shoulder pauldrons, grinning his most triumphant shit-eatingest grin. He felt an instant of panic, just an instant, until he abruptly put two and two together. "Oh, you little /shit/," he laughed in disbelief.  
  
Axl brushed his hand through his bleached hair, tossing it back over his shoulder, eyes closing; a mimicry of the true Zero's arrogant dismissal move, testing out the framework. "Hey! That's no way to talk to yourself," he told Zero, in his own voice, and bent down to pick him up off the couch. "Better be super super nice to me from now on, because now that I got this I can get you in SO much trouble," Axl giggled, and carried Zero bodily into the next room.    


* * *

  
He set Zero down on his feet, carefully, in the center of the room, and flicked on the light. Zero bit down the urge to laugh again, as he turned his head, realized what was around them. Shelves and storage bins, neatly lined up along the walls. "You seriously just took me into another closet."  
  
Axl-as-Zero cackled. "Sorry, but it was just too perfect." He rubbed his hands together, not bothering to mimic the original, letting his own body language show through. "Plus this is where we kept all the fun and weird stuff we confiscated off the Mavs we took down. You just stand there for a minute, okay? I'm gonna get some stuff together."  
  
Zero swayed lightly on his toes, back and forth, watching his own body reaching, pulling down bins, eyeing the discrepancies as the owner of the original. "Do I really have that much hair...? What are you planning, anyway?"  
  
"I thought about something. You're totally gonna get in trouble with X when he gets back, right? Because he checks your logs and stuff? But if he checks my logs, I can totally spoof everything normal. 'Cause I can totally pass as you." He plucked up a length of chain, a heavy metal collar, black tape, set them on the floor. Then he got up, replaced the bin and started looking into another one. "Of course, two Zeros runnin' around the house kind of messes up everything, so you kind of have to stay here for a couple of days."  
  
Zero blinked, just once. His gaze flicked over the objects on the floor, and his mouth suddenly felt dry. "Uh, you're not the right colors, to start with. Also, you can't fool him like that, there's more than just system logs."  
  
"Oh, I know!" Axl rebutted, cheerfully. "I got all that junk he put in when I copied your data. Except for the color thing, and I think I can hack that with a armor holo patch, he won't know. We'll just have you stayin' here for a couple of days, layin' low, and I'll come get you when everything's clear." Zero didn't even recognize the new objects Axl was adding to the pile - some kind of small electronic with a number of cables and pads dangling from it, and an oddly shaped black bulb.  
  
Zero tugged against the tape pinning his arms down, face falling. He was getting an idea where Axl was headed, and he wasn't sure he liked it. "It won't work," he repeated, "Even supposing everything goes the way you think it will, as soon as I get back the data won't match."  
  
Axl tutted at him, waggling his own finger at him. "Zero, it'll be okay. Really. I got it all figured. Besides, I got somethin' else out of your data too." Bundling up all the items he'd collected, Axl dragged a pallet over to one end of the room, looped the chain through part of it, then walked back to Zero and picked him up again to move him toward the back end of the room. He set Zero down on top of the pallet, and maneuvered him into a kneeling position. He crouched down in front of Zero.  
  
Zero looked up, eyes widening. "Wait," he stammered. "Axl, wait."  
  
Axl leaned in and touched his lips to Zero's forehead, gently. "It's okay, Zero. I get it. I know why you've been going so crazy. He hasn't been givin' you this, and you need this so so bad. He's been topping your head with all that code stuff, but not your body. You need both. He doesn't get that yet, but he will. I'm gonna make sure he gets it. You gotta trust me now. I promise this is gonna be okay." He lifted the thick silver collar and closed it around Zero's throat. Zero made a low, anxious noise, wriggling his shoulders in vain, while Axl ran the heavy chain through the loop on the collar and let it dangle for the moment, as he reached for another item.  
  
Axl busied himself binding Zero even tighter - adding layers of black tape on top of the silver, all across his body, around his ankles, elbows, across his thighs. Zero was shocked into silence, unresisting because he couldn't believe the situation. His body throbbed, angry and hot, but he couldn't move enough to put up any fight.  
  
After Axl finished taping Zero again, he laid him down over the pallet, so that Zero's ankles were trapped under his thighs, and then pulled the chain around his neck tight, so that Zero's neck was caught by the collar and bound closely to the wooden frame. This was locked too; under the board, where he had no way to reach it except to break the board entirely. Zero wouldn't be able to sit up or uncurl himself from the frame, and a couple more belts and straps were added, run around his waist and between his knees, just to keep him down. He was shivering in a daze of fear and guilty pleasure when Axl finished.  
  
Axl ran his hand up Zero's thigh to his hip, soothing. "You're doing fine. Just a little more and then we're all done. I'm gonna add somethin' to keep you a little too busy to care about what I'll be doin' while you're here, then you get gagged and blindfolded. I'll be intercepting any signals sent to you, so you won't get tracked back and the teleporters won't lock." He peeled back Zero's pelvic plate and started attaching the leads from the odd little box - Zero couldn't see it with his neck locked down, but he felt the odd cool suction at various places in his groin and frowned puzzledly at the ceiling.  
  
The frown rapidly melted into a gasp when the leads, attached to his nodes, started sending rumbling, penetrative pulses into his body, irregular and of varying intensities and durations. The pulses, randomly fired, seemed to spread out from their original points to ghost into his hips, his spine, and the back of his neck. Sensations snapped and popped all over his frame, deep and shallow, bright and hot, then cold and tingling. Zero tossed his head, hair pooling under him, and shrieked out at a particularly deep-feeling thrust of energy.  
   
"Nice, huh?" Axl moved around Zero, knelt behind his head and peered down at him, reaching to brush some errant hair away from the blond's forehead, out of his eyes. "Just let go into it, Zero. Let go. You can't get out of this until I let you out."  
  
Zero saw Axl moving to gag him and pushed out, frantic, "Don't hurt him. Please."  
  
Axl giggled. "I'm not gonna. You got it all wrong, but you'll see." He pushed the odd bulb into Zero's mouth, taped it down, and then slid the blindfold over Zero's eyes and reinforced that with a round of tape as well. "Nothing to see, nothing to say, nothing to think, nothing to fight," he sing-songed. "Go down into it, Zero. Let it take you." He bent down, and kissed Zero's taped mouth, stroked his trembling neck and face, then swung his leg over and around Zero's shoulder, changing position so he straddled Zero's head and shoulders between his thighs.  
  
"But first you're gonna get me off with your nose." He grinned wickedly, unhooked his stolen armor, and grabbed hard into Zero's hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of course you know, this means war. And at least one more chapter.  
> WHY DID I WRITE THIS. WHY ISN'T ANYONE STOPPING ME.


	3. Closeted 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More closet shenanigans: Axl toys with Zero for a while, then brings X to see what he's done.

After Axl completely satisfied himself against Zero’s captive frame - using his grip on Zero’s hair to push the blond’s head about and rubbing his pelvic lines against Zero’s gagged mouth and nose for a long, delicious dry hump - he slumped over Zero for a little while, riding the satisfaction, stroking Zero’s hips and the sides of his face affectionately. Still wearing his stolen copy of Zero’s body, Axl quietly admired feel the warm, soft feeling of his own long hair settling along his back and thighs, over his shoulders. It felt good to be Zero, to be in his strong, powerful body - and even better to have the real one tied up and shaking underneath him, helplessly captured. A double rush. “Y’know, I might wanna hang out here with you a bit longer before I go,” Axl commented. “Kinda rude to just use you and run, huh? No hurry, nothing’s goin’ on at Base anyway.”   
  
Zero responded by calling him a number of colorful things over radio, growling and mewling, the lines of his neck taut - but Axl could read more yearning and hungry submission than real anger in the long throbs of energy pulsing through Zero’s bound body. Axl grinned, and smoothed his palm gently over Zero’s taped lips, flattening out the tape. He also sent an activation signal to the odd bulb he’d planted in Zero’s mouth, and felt it start to vibrate through Zero’s skin against his palm. Zero made a throttled, questioning noise, as the thing came to life against his tongue and started to rumble and throb in a rolling, steady rhythm. Then he gasped around it, and whimpered, [mmh. w-wha…What the hell is this thing?]   
  
Axl sshed him. “Just somethin’ else that’s fun to keep you distracted. Imagine it’s a big fat juicy human cock and suck on it real hard, it’ll change up around what you do with it.”   
  
[I hate you so much right now,] Zero moaned, and his cheeks flexed as he followed Axl’s advice. The bulb’s rhythm shifted as he fought it with his tongue, fluxing inside his mouth, and it proved very distracting indeed. Between the heavy weight quivering in his mouth and the random firing of the vibrator stuck to his inner nodes, Zero couldn’t keep two thoughts strung together. He pulled hard on the pallet, which creaked under him but didn’t give; his own weight and Axl’s kept him down, and his body ached for more and more and more abuse. He slid down into his lust, his helplessness. [Don’t leave me.]    
  
Axl shifted his voice back to mirroring Zero’s, pressed over him and murmured into his collared neck, breathing Zero’s own low tones against the chain across his throat. “I really, really want to fuck you right now. I wish I could do the same thing that human did to you. Pump you full of that hot stuff and make you feel me all wet and hard in your mouth. Get inside you and push and push, and you spread so wide for me while I fuck you.” He moved his hand down, found one of Zero’s bare nodes at his hip not occupied with the vibrator, and started pinching and tapping against it, steadily, hard and then soft, rolling his thumb down and in and up, bending the mesh down. Zero sobbed out a muffled, strangled plea.  His shoulders rocked back and forth against the pallet.   
  
Axl ran his tongue over a patch of Zero’s cheek not covered in tape. “I want you to remember how that felt, that human in your mouth. How dirty and good it made you feel with that cock deep down your throat.” Axl was getting turned on by Zero’s filthy mouth and he was the one being Zero’s filthy mouth! “You liked it. I know how much you liked that, because I know everything about you now. Because I’m you. I know all your dirty, juicy little secrets, Zero. I know what you want done to you. I know what you think about, more than even X knows. You want to be just like this, tied up and fucked and stuffed full because it feels. so. good. to let go. You want to be wet and dirty and covered in come and stretched out until you ache.”   
  
Zero was very, very close to both fainting and climaxing, and Axl moved back for the kill, pulling back and drawing a Bullet into his right hand, shoving it between Zero’s closed thighs and pressing the muzzle down against Zero’s quivering central pelvic line, nudging it back and forth. He made another mental adjustment to the weapon and reached up with his other hand to put his weight on the center of Zero’s chest, and shot him with a burst of stinging (harmless, but painful) energy. “I’m going to tell X to modify your body,” he panted above Zero, “There’s no need for two Zeros in the world, now that I exist. We’ll have you taken out and sedated and while you’re out we’ll put in proper holes so we can fuck you like humans do. Then we’ll keep you locked up just like this, all nice and quiet, hidden where only we know where you are.” Axl shot Zero several times, pulling the trigger in a steady rhythm, the Bullet’s energy penetrating his body again and again.  Zero was bucking into the shots, chanting, sobbing in his mind, do it, harder, fuck me, do it. “We’ll make you our fuck toy, and you’ll live that way for the rest of your life.” Another shot. “Nameless, annihilated, forgotten, as our slave. You don’t deserve to be Zero.”   
  
Zero’s body pulled hard, hard as a bowstring, already overwrought muscles pulling so tight they squeaked and popped. He shrieked blindly, pulled against the tape and chains and Axl’s weight, and collapsed into a bruising climax that stripped his mind totally clean. His climax lashed out hard from him, a wave that shook through Axl’s stolen body, that cracked the pallet but didn’t shatter it completely - then Zero fainted. His head slumped back limply, breath huffing hard out of his nose and his lower spinal vents.   
  
Axl sucked in air and had to release the A-trans - he was too overwrought to hold the transformation any longer after being hit with Zero’s backlash - and rolled off Zero to flop bonelessly to the floor beside the pallet. “Oh man,” he breathed, ecstatic but exhausted. “Oh, man.” He felt heavy; he wanted to go into a recharger, but he forced himself to sit up and crawl back to check on Zero; feeling a bit of pity for what he’d done to his friend, he pulled the gag out and removed the vibrator so Zero could sleep peacefully. He’d wake up sore and still bound, but at least he could rest for a little while.    
  
The newgen touched his fingers to Zero’s mouth, then kissed him hard, tasting Zero’s low, shivery breath. “So amazing. You’re so amazing, Zero. I really love you so much,” Axl whispered, smoothing his hand over Zero’s damp forehead. “Know you can’t hear me right now, but it’s true. If X won’t take good care of you then I will. Promise.”   
  
He staggered up to his feet, and launched a tiny camera drone from one shoulder that was barely larger than a bumblebee. The “bug” buzzed over toward the top of one of the shelves and positioned itself so that it had a full aerial view of Zero’s body, which was fed to Axl’s HUD. He set the window to a minimal size and tucked it in a corner of his sight, so he could monitor in case something happened and return quickly if necessary to help Zero.   
  
Then he left the closet and locked the door behind him.

* * *

After meeting with his smuggler to obtain his color-change holomod, Axl came back to the hideout to check on Zero's bonds one last time. Zero was awake again by the time he returned.  
  
"Hi," Axl grinned, now a perfect copy of Zero, "How're you doing in there?" as he crouched beside the pallet and took a quick scan off Zero. "Still fighting?"  
  
"I gave up," Zero sighed, exhausted, turning his blindfolded face toward the sound of his copy's voice. "You're seriously going through with this."  
  
"Yup!" the camouflaged newgen replied cheerfully. He cracked open the tab of a Life Bottle and stuck a straw in it, leaning forward to cradle Zero's head and get him in a better position for drinking. "Here, you probably need this."  
  
"Mm-hmm." Zero obediently sucked on the straw for a bit, his lines gleaming as his energy returned, and Axl stroked his forehead fondly. Once the bottle was drained, Axl got up and found a small pad to slide under Zero's neck. "The way I see it, X is only gonna understand what you need if I show him, so I'm gonna show him. If he actually sees you like this, I think he'll get it."  
  
Zero grumbled, but his face grew hotter at the mental image of being found so helpless by X, X creeping forward uncertainly to touch him... "Mmh. Or he'll kill you because he thinks you doing this to me is going Maverick."  
  
Axl giggled. "Nah, not gonna happen. He gets one look at you and he won't be thinking about anything except how to nail you, I promise. Man, I can barely stand this, I want to do so much to you right now it's not even funny. It's really, really hard to leave you alone like this."  
  
The pallet creaked under Zero's weight as he fidgeted. "Don't want to be left alone." Then he was silent for a little while, before asking in a soft, low voice, "Do that to me again. What you did before."  
  
Axl oh'd! "You wanna be gagged again and stuff?"  
  
Zero pressed his lips together but nodded fractionally, exhaled.  
  
"Sure. I think I'll use a different gag though, since you have to wear it for a while and that first one was too rough." Axl got up, rummaged through the baskets again and came back with a large red ballgag instead, "Open up!" It only took a moment to get it between Zero's teeth and locked tight.  
  
He moved to replace the vibrator pads, but couldn't resist leaning in to drag his tongue wetly along a few of Zero's more significant nodes before he did so. Zero moaned and whimpered, thighs shivering as white sparks snapped between his legs. Axl couldn't stop himself from sliding his fingers down between Zero's legs and stroking the blond; Zero's helpless cries were just too delicious.  
  
Axl toyed with his captive a while, just short of bringing Zero to climax, but he forced himself to pull back and stop while Zero was still panting and struggling; it was an incredible effort that almost hurt.  
  
"Can't," Axl rasped out, and clicked the vibrator on hard random. "Later."  
  
He forced himself to teleport away, but Zero's outraged cries followed him through the bug he'd planted in the corner of the room.  


* * *

  
Axl had always loved infiltration, and he'd always been good at it - he'd trained using Red Alert's base for practice. Now he was getting to practice his skills on the Maverick Hunters - and playact as Zero at the same time. The first thing he did on return was invent orders from Zero sending Axl on a long, boring out of town "investigation" - nothing significant or unusual enough to raise an alarm, but a way to account for his own absence - then settled down to comfortably operate as Zero until X returned.  
  
The real Zero whimpered quietly in the dark in a tiny night vision box at the corner of his HUD.  
  
He sat through Zero's meetings, actually led a training session with the 0th Unit on special stealth manuevers that went (in his opinion) quite well, and generally had a blast settling into Zero's body, enjoying not just his stolen body's strength but his social position and authority. People really listened to Zero, so Axl was careful to only say what he was sure Zero himself would have said. He did have to release his A-trans for a few hours at a time to let his system cool off, but he used hard light holomods to cover him at those times, always late at night, and he was careful to avoid direct contact. All in all, despite a few moments of scare, things went perfectly.  
  
Two days passed. Finally, X was due back to Base in an hour, so 'Zero' hung around the Blader bay, chitchatting with the repair staff as he waited.  
  
He passed X's internal 'inspection' with flying colors, and he kept the calmest expression on his face while he inwardly cackled. _Nope, no sucking strange human cock, no being tied up in an enemy closet by his support gunner and having his DNA stolen, none of that happened, no **sir!**_  
  
It helped that X was tired and distracted and not in the mood for a deep scan or a proper interface; he simply nodded satisfaction, gave 'Zero' a weary kiss and headed straight for his recharger.  "Let's talk in the morning, Zero. I missed you, but I'm so worn out from the mission I can't see straight."  
  
"Sure, X. Don't concern yourself. Good night." 'Zero' set the recharger for X like usual, and then locked the cover down.  
  
As X went into idle, Zero grinned Axl's big grin for just a split second.  
  
 _Told you it'd work, Zero._  


* * *

  
In the morning, as X was climbing out of his charger, 'Zero' leaned forward with his hands linked behind his back and whispered to X, "I got you a present while you were away."  
  
X snickered softly, craning toward his partner. "What kind of present?"  
  
"It's not here," 'Zero' cooed, eyes flirty and twinkling, "I have it stashed somewhere else. If you have a little time this morning, I'll take you there and show it to you."  
  
The blue Hunter grinned more deeply. "Ohh, is it _that_ kind of present? Not safe for work?"  
  
"Sort of. You'll see. Want to go get it now?"  
  
"Of course!"  
  
'Zero' took X's hand then, and kicked in his teleporter.  
  
"What's here, Zero?" X asked, as they materialized in the kitchen of the hideout. "Is this what you wanted me to see?"  
  
'Zero' grinned at him. "Yeah. Your present's in that side room."  
  
X looked faintly puzzled, but he nodded, trusting. "Sure, I guess, Zero." It all seemed a bit strange to him, but he was willing to go along. He tilted his head a bit, curious, as Zero unlocked the closet door, then gestured for him to go inside. "I'll turn the light on when you're in."  
  
X did as he was told and went through, so 'Zero' followed his partner, and he clicked on the light when they were both inside.  
  
X gasped aloud as he saw the captive blond twitching and whimpering against the pallet and his heavy restraints. The noises were unmistakable, as was the strained scent of his ozone, the folded lines and muscles of his body. X knew his true partner instantly. "z-Zero?!"  
  
Zero choked out a call from behind his gag, crying for X, struggling. The blue Hunter twisted, staring in shock as 'Zero' quickly grabbed hold of his elbows, holding tight before X could turn or raise his Buster arm to attack.  
  
Axl stayed in Zero's body- he needed the strength to control X - but dropped back to his own voice. "X, stay calm and let me explain, okay? I promise Zero's just a little uncomfortable, but he's not hurt at all and I'm gonna let him go when we're done."       
  
"Have you gone Maverick, Axl?" X shrieked. "Let Zero go right now! Why did you do this to him?"  
  
Axl licked his lips. "Because he needed it, X."  
  
" _What_?"  
  
Axl covered X's mouth with his hand, stopping X from yelling. "Just calm down for a second and listen to me. Don't fight me and don't freak out, because I promise, I SWEAR Zero's totally not in any danger. I just want you to see him, okay? Really look at him, really see him like this, not what you're afraid is going on, but what his body's really telling you. Let his body talk, not his mouth or your brain."  
  
X grunted, but Axl's hand kept his head locked in position, so he really didn't have any choice but to look long as Zero shivered in his bonds. He fidgeted angrily, not understanding, wanting to free his partner, but the longer he looked... something did slowly start to occur to him. Zero was twitching and whimpering, but there was a weird beauty to it. X's eyes slowly widened. It trickled into his awareness that if Zero had honestly and truly wanted to free himself, he could have done so, even with the shocking amount of tape cocooning him, even with the chains and belts holding him down. But he wasn't actually trying all that hard. Why?     
  
Axl leaned over his shoulder and whispered to X as he felt the other Hunter start to calm down. "Starting to see, right?"    
  
X's cheeks started to go red and warm under Axl's heavy hand. [I... I don't understand.]  
  
"Just keep looking at him," Axl said softly. "You'll get it."  
  
The silence in the storage closet deepened, but became more electric. The longer X stared at Zero's bondage, the more strangely correct it started to feel to him. He somehow felt, without fully understanding, that Zero's captivity suited him. The black lines crossing his eyes and mouth, the black lines pulled tight around his body; these seemed to X to somehow belong, as much a correct part of Zero as his armor, his hair, the color of his eyes.  
  
Axl's breath touched X's audial. "You feel it now, right? He works this way, doesn't he?"  
  
X was utterly bewildered. Strange feelings blossomed through him, possessive, desiring. He wanted to touch. He wanted to put his hands on Zero, wanted to free him, wanted to find more straps and lock him down even harder, and write his name in glowing letters on every strap so that it was clear who owned him. [He... am I going crazy, Axl? He looks so...]  
  
"Perfect," Axl sighed. "He looks perfect like that. Gorgeous. Like it's how he's supposed to be, right? You want to do more to him, don't you?"  
  
X pushed against Axl's hand a little. He was nodding, but he was scared of what it meant that he was nodding. [But I... how can... How can I want to tie him down and want to set him free at the same time? It doesn't make sense! I don't want to hurt him... Why am I feeling this way...?]  
  
"Because his body's cryin' out to you and now you can hear it a little better. And he wants both." Axl started walking them closer to the pallet, still gripping X's elbow. Zero heard them, and his gagged cries rose in intensity, keening and frantic. His hips stretched, pushed against their straps, the wood frame creaking beneath him. He wanted desperately for X or Axl or someone to touch him.  
      
X whimpered in answer, a sympathetic noise he couldn't control. He started to lean forward, caught in the edge of Zero's yearning magnetism.  
  
"He can feel you," Axl cooed to X, "Even though you're not touching him right now, even though he's tied up and gagged and all that, he feels you. His body knows exactly where you are, all the time. And yours knows where his is. You're connected at the root, but you've been trying just to keep him topped through his mind. You gotta own his body too. Bend it over backward, rack it out until he screams. He doesn't want to think, he wants to feel. He needs you to take control of him. You haven't." Axl asked him then, "If I let go of you right now, what would you do?"  
  
The blue Hunter groaned, head whirling. [I think I'd... I... want to touch him.]  
  
"More," Axl urged him. "What else do you want to do to him, X?" He pulled his palm back from X's mouth. "Say it real loud so he can hear you."  
  
X turned a dark, deep red. "I..." He stared at Zero's naked pelvis, his gagged mouth and blind eyes, the pool of his hair coiled beneath his head. He felt Zero's attention moving toward the sound of his voice, somehow. X gulped in air. Zero's body was pulling on him, yearning for him. He felt it now so deeply. "I want to, to, to," the last word was so hard to get out, "hurt.. no, I want to just... just take you, Zero." Then the words seemed to fall out of his mouth all at once. "Oh Zero, Zero, I want you. I want to hold you and touch you and h-h-hurt you and f-ghh... fuck you." There it was, somehow it had come out, the word, the true word. "Axl, let me go."  
  
Axl released him. X slid in a half-dash across the floor to the pallet, quickly climbed over Zero, settled on him, tore off his gag and kissed him as hard as he possibly could. X pulled apart some of the tape binding Zero's legs together and pushed his knees open, then started fingering Zero almost frantically. In very short order they were gasping together, pressed cheek to cheek, making hard wet cries and sobbing each other's names.  
  
Axl grinned a bit, glanced up at his bug which was still recording everything, and slid backward quietly out of the closet while they were distracted.  
  
He flopped onto the couch, releasing the A-trans with a groan, and quickly brought himself off to the feed from his bug, then shut his eyes, just for a moment.

* * *

  
He hadn't meant to sleep, but he'd exerted more energy than he'd thought, so when he woke up again, a naked, viciously grinning Zero and a stern, serious looking X were looming over him.  
  
"X, get him!"  
  
All at once they pounced; X grabbed Axl's hands, and Zero popped off the start of a fresh new roll of silver tape! Axl yelped, but in seconds his ankles and wrists were taped together, his mouth was plastered over, and X and Zero were lifting him off the couch while he wriggled - to lug him back into the closet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I borked this release, I managed to put it out with the entire opening segment (More A/Z porn because there needs to be much more of it!) deleted. GOOD JOB! I'll get the hang of this yet...


	4. Further Down the Spiral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> X comes to an uncomfortable realization after spending some quality time in a closet with Zero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set some unspecified period of time after the third chapter - presume that the triad has negotiated themselves into a 24/7 D/S kink arrangement (Hunter work permitting, of course) which, up until now, everyone has been very happy with. Soft body upgrades have also happened in the interim. I figured this thematically fit better here, within this series, than as a new subseries. :)

"Hi, Axl," X smiled at the younger Hunter, "Zero around?" 

Axl glanced up from his reading and snickered. "He's in the closet." He reached into his jeans, fished out a key ring and tossed them to X. "Here y'go. I wasn't sure when you'd be free tonight so I put him back where I found him just in case."

X caught the keys and grinned. "I appreciate you keeping things tidy. Thanks. Has he eaten?" 

"Yeah, we ate a bit, all that. Leftovers in the fridge if you want 'em. He's probably asleep again." 

Ever since the Closet Incident, the whole thing had become a running joke between the three S-class Hunters, and they'd modified one of the S-class common's storage closets into a cozy-but-shallow bondage cell, 6 x 6 with a floor recharging panel, some large pillows for comfort, and wall-mounted chains and rings. Zero often found himself 'put away in his closet' by his lovers on slow days, in varying states of confinement. He actually didn't mind; he found he slept better in the closet than in his recharger, and occasionally retreated there on his own when he needed solitude or a place to cool off. But the door was magnetically sealed and once it closed it could only be unlocked from the outside. 

X decided to shower and change into comfortable night clothes first - loose blue silk pajamas and a heavy grey robe - and gobbled up some of Axl's leftover pad thai before making his way back to Zero's closet. He tapped his fingertip gently on the hidden scanner pad and the magnetic hinge loosened. He peeked inside, "Zero?" speaking softly in case his partner actually was asleep. 

Zero made a soft noise; he was awake, or woke at the sound of X's voice, and lifted his head. He was blindfolded and curled up on one of the big pillows; he wore some grey sweatpants and nothing else, and his ankles were chained together with a short hobble between them. His hair was down, fronds curling and loose and sliding around his shoulders. "Mm. X?" 

X sucked in a breath; Zero looked all the more alluring in his disheveled state, and X stored a couple of frames from his optics for later appreciation. He entertained a few fleeting mental images of handcuffing or leashing Zero and pushed them aside with an effort. 

Axl was right; Zero sounded groggy, like he'd been sleeping. X moved to crouch next to Zero, and spoke again. "Hi, Zero," X said, reaching forward and laying a hand on Zero's leg, "Did I wake you up?" 

"Kind of." Zero yawned, stretched a little, like a waking cat, wiggling his shoulders, flexing his toes and sticking his legs out. "Mmn. I think I was dozing, but I'm not sure. I lose track of time in here." 

"I bet," X laughed. "Do you want to come out for a while?"

Zero chuckled, grinning under the blindfold, and reached his hands toward X's voice. "The real question is, do you actually want to untie me, or are you thinking I'm not tied up enough?" 

X slid one of his hands into Zero's, their fingers tangling together, and he laughed harder, blushing too. Caught red-handed! Or red-thoughted, anyway. "Well, if I'm honest - hang on a second." He picked up a pair of handcuffs lying on the floor next to the door, and nudged them against Zero's hand so he'd know what X had in mind. Zero closed his fingers around the cuff, inhaled. X leaned closer, brushing his lips against Zero's, whispering. "I think we both know the answer to that question, Zero." 

Zero murmured, "Yes, Master X." He fit one of the cuffs around his wrist in front of himself, where X could see, then folded his arms back behind himself and finished the job by feel. He tipped his head up. "I think you should check and make sure I did it right." 

X leaned forward, brushing his hands down Zero's bare arms, slowly, following them down to the wrists. Zero had left the cuffs a little loose, X could tell by feel. He tsked at Zero. "These can be tighter. Shame on you." He pushed on the swing bars with his thumbs until the cuffs were flush around Zero's wrists, as snug as they could go. He gave Zero's chains a peremptory tug. Satisfied, he reached to smoothe his fingers through Zero's soft hair, pushing it back over his shoulders, arranging the golden strands to his liking. "I don't know why you look so gorgeous the more tied up you are. It doesn't make any sense." He continued to play with Zero's hair, moving layers around, letting them fall and slide through his fingers and sighing with pleasure. "I'm so lucky to have you, Zero."

"I'm yours," Zero breathed, leaning forward into X's touch. "I want you to have me. I want you to keep me. I want to be kept. On my knees. In chains. I always wear a leash. My hands are always tied. I kneel between your legs and your cock is in my mouth, keeping me quiet." 

X bit down a gasp, feeling himself starting to harden against the silk he wore as Zero's dark whispers took root somewhere inside his pelvis, tugged on some hidden strings in his chest. He pushed closer to the blond, wound his hand through Zero's hair, fingers tensing. "Keep talking," he gasped. "Tell me how I keep you." 

Zero found X's thigh with his nose, pressed his cheek against X's silk pajama leg. X could feel Zero's face heating through the material, warmth against his skin. His cock began to throb at the closeness, the idea of finding Zero's mouth. "There's a beautiful kingdom. Peaceful and just. Because I am bound. You sit on its throne. You wear blue robes or a uniform. I wear nothing except my chains. I go where you go, kept close on a chain leash that never leaves your hand. Everyone can see me. Everyone knows what you do with me. You keep me blindfolded. I'm forbidden to see any face but yours. My body has forgotten how to fight. It only knows how to endure and obey." 

X groaned harder. Zero was pressing an old button, and he both loved and hated the way Zero could manipulate him with that gorgeous, filthy mouth. There was some small secret guilty part of him that really wanted the power Zero described, and it twisted eagerly in him, roaring approval as the vision built. "More." His eyes slid closed. He tried to resist the flush of heat rolling through his cheeks and failed. 

Zero moved his head, blind but following his sense of smell, his lips even closer to the cloth above X's rapidly growing erection, his breath ghosting through the material to tease X's skin. "My slavery is eternal. Necessary for peace. You can't free me, not ever. The arm of your throne has a ring my leash can be tied to. Our bed has built-in shackles. I live in a small room, just like this. Dark. Soundproofed. Secure. Sometimes I'm buried in a small box, or displayed in a glass case." Zero paused and inhaled, and moved his lips a little further up X's body, mouthing at the silk along X's erection, "I drink your come every day." 

X couldn't stand another moment; he quickly reached down and wrestled out of his pajama bottoms, kicking them away, freeing his pulsing erection. He grabbed at the back of Zero's head and pulled him forward, gasping out, "You can start now." He pushed his cock into Zero's mouth, groaning darkly. 

Zero glrphed around X but they quickly found rhythm together, wet and slippery, X thrusting deep and Zero's throat vibrating with stifled moans and swallowing gulps. X kept one hand gripping Zero's hair, forcing his head into position, to take X's whole hard cock over and over. With his other hand, he grabbed Zero's shoulder to brace himself. Harder, harder, faster, faster, he fucked Zero's face, rubbing his cock in and out over lips and tongue, stuffing his balls into Zero's mouth too, desperate to fill that hot and dirty mouth up _shut him up_ until the coiling heat bulding up in his thighs snapped sharp and suddenly released. X cried out and vibrated against Zero, thrusting wildly and flooding Zero's throat with hot come. He ground on past his orgasm, wanting to stay in Zero's mouth, churning up his own come, white fluid bubbling around the edges of him, dribbling down Zero's chin. Zero climaxed hard somewhere in the middle of that, his grey sweatpants getting a growing dark wet spot as his bound hands made it impossible to remove them. 

"You," X rasped out, incoherent, mad with pleasure and heat. The words sounded so sweet off Zero's tongue, the image he created between them such a wicked pleasure, but something deeper, something he didn't know except as an impulse, made X feel hollow and wrong inside. He struggled to collect himself; his head was spinning. 

X's body ached. He wanted to shove Zero down, claim what was being offered. He was so tempted. His whole body throbbed with want, and Zero's face was wet, shiny with sweat and come, his lips open and swollen and invitingly pink. 

The little closet was full of the thick, humid smell of sex. X gasped for air, struggling to navigate his thoughts; he put a hand on the wall and was shocked at its coldness against his fingers. The sensation jolted him. 

His voice came out harsh as he forced himself to pull out of Zero's mouth. Words were difficult, as though he were struggling across a deep chasm to speak them. "Zero. Don't... say another... word. If you say ... another word I might do it. I want to do it..." 

Zero squared his shoulders, lifted his blind eyes up, and he said, "Then do it." 

X's doubts instantly crystallized, a clarity that chilled him. What were they doing? Zero was trying to... X could damn well have punched him, then. "No, Zero." He sucked in air, straightened his back. _Breathe, breathe, breathe. Don't choose this. This is not right._ "No. I won't let you throw your life away." Breathe. "You don't have to be a slave to save the world. Or give up on the present. You have a life here and now and people who love you even when you're not punishing yourself, Zero." 

It took every ounce of his will to turn away, and his fingers were shaking when he found his pjs and struggled back into them. Once he was dressed again, he found the keys, and fumbled his way through unlocking Zero's wrists and ankles. He pulled Zero up onto his feet and tugged off the blindfold, watching Zero's eyes twitch and struggle to adapt to even the soft light of the overhead bulb. Zero stared at X, startled - X thought he looked like he was waking from a dream. 

X stared hard into Zero's eyes. "You've been spending too much time in here. We've been indulging the part of you that wants to suffer. Now that I know what you're thinking, I can't let this continue." He took hold of Zero's arm and started to pull him out, back into the daylight. He raised his voice and bellowed, "Axl! Conference. Right now!" 

There was a startled "On it!" from the other room in answer. X slid his hand down Zero's arm again, pulled one of his hands up, looked at the angry red mark left by the cuff on Zero's synthskin. His eyes narrowed, and his determination grew. 

Zero stumbled along, still looking confused, his eyes wide.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry. :D


End file.
